Class Party

In June of this year, I started my English class at ELS - TAFE SA. This is an Adult Migrant English Program provided by the Australian Federal government to new immigrants. This month we had a settlement course where we learnt all about Australian culture in areas such as education, law, health, housing, employment, etc. This course is designed to help us settle into the Australian way of life.


I was very lucky that my classmates and teachers are all wonderful people. This made learning easier, my new life here more fun and made me looked forward to go to school everyday. Too bad the holiday classes I was interested in were cancelled due to a lack of numbers. I will miss my class mates so much. 

The 30th June was the last day for this term. We had a quiz followed by a class party. As we are come from different countries, everybody brought something from their culture. All the food looked very nice and made us want to try everything. 

It was a very successful class party, everybody had a great time and we finished by taking class pictures. See you next term friends......

Birthday story

Today is my birthday.
It was our first birthday celebration together.
Maybe I am too old to celebrate my birthday.
But it was special, first time we celebrate it together.

Beautiful card from my husband
followed by a surprise romantic dinner
Later I knew, he had made a reservation
at Italian restaurant at the North Haven marina.

Birthday card from my father in law,
and my sister in law and her family
made me thrilled and felt so much love
from my new family

The phone rings, so many short messages
and all the posting in Facebook
full of wishes and prayers
from my beloved family and friends.

God, thank you for all your blessings
for all your kindness
I will cherish all your gifts
for each and every day.

Sunrise makes my morning beautiful, but all your wishes and prayers make my live more meaningful.Thanks to all my family and friends for remembering my birthday.

Waterfall Gully

Winter is coming. Everyday the temperature is only between 4-16. Actually, in this kind of weather, I prefer to stay at home in front of the heater, but David wanted to go for a drive somewhere and show me something new. So, after he picked me up from Sunday Mass, he took me to Burnside.


Burnside is a fairly upper-middle class area located in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide. Some of the residents own the houses in the hills that offer a spectacular view of the city. Within the city of Burnside is Waterfall Gully, with the main attraction being the spectacular waterfall. Historically, Waterfall Gully was first explored by European settlers in the early-to-mid-19th century, and quickly became a popular location for tourists and picnickers.

We arrived at around 1pm and to my surprise, the car park was full. It was obvious that the cold weather wasn't going to stop people from enjoying the view. So, I tried to be brave and ignore the cold weather and walked to the waterfall. We sat in front of the waterfall and had our lunch as we enjoyed the blue sky above.

Besides the waterfall, I love to see the wind blow the leaves from the trees and watched as the kids tried to catch them as they fell to the ground. I also love to walk along the path covered by the dried maple leafs and picked up some just to play with them. I remembered that David always said that winter is cold, but winter also has it's own beauty. Magnificent isn't it? 

      

Fiesta Latina in Adelaide

To celebrate Mother's day, the Latin community in Adelaide held a Fiesta Latina night at the Enfield Community Centre on the 20th May 2011. David thought, it would be fun if we were to go with Pedro & Erica, his Latino friends and Mario & Murielle, who always enjoy Latino music and dance. So, on that cold Friday night, after we had dinner with Pedro & Erica at The Emperor's Crown Chinese restaurant, we met M&M at the venue at 8pm. 


To our surprise there were not many people there. The ticket price per person was only $10 and free for mothers (for this event, I claimed I was a mother too ^_^), so we expected more people to be there. 

The first entertainers were  the Romantic Guitariatin Roots. They sang 3 songs that were so good that M&M went to the dance floor immediately. 

They were followed by an African Chorus presented by an Adelaide African community group. 

Then a couple of dances from a Victorian company called "The Bolero of Melbourne".

Some more Latino Songs....

The last performance was by a group of salsa dancers, who after their dance, invited some of the audience to the dance floor, and....... I was one of them. Well, even I had difficulty following their steps, but I had so much fun. 

And finally, the Latino Disco time began. We were so surprised by Pedro and Erica, they danced very well. We stayed there until 11pm and I am sure everybody had a great evening. 

Royal Wedding Stamps

Since the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton was published, there was a lot of news about the upcoming Royal Wedding in the media. Everything I read in the newspaper or watched on the television about this big event in London, made me feel very excited.
Sejak pengumuman pertunangan Pangeran William dan Kate Middleton, banyak sekali berita-berita seputar rencana perkawinan mereka di media. Saya semangat sekali mengikuti semua berita tentang mereka baik di koran maupun di televisi. 


A lot of souvenirs featuring the Royal couple were made and sold around the world to celebrate this big event.  Australia Post also published a series Royal Wedding Stamps and as an amateur stamp collector, I would have loved to have them. Then last week, my father in law gave me a huge surprise. He had bought a set of the Royal Wedding stamps for me. I was so thrilled when receive them, because I had never told him that I wanted them. Mind you, he had to put his name down on the waiting list for these stamps because so many people had requested them. Well, these are all those stamps. Thanks Bertie, I'm really do appreciate it.
Di seluruh dunia banyak cenderamata dibuat untuk merayakan perkawinan mereka. Tidak mau ketinggalan, Australian Post juga menerbitkan perangko seri Royal Wedding. Sebagai kolektor perangko saya juga ingin sekali memiliki salah satu perangko-perangko tersebut. Dan pada hari minggu lalu, papa mertua saya memberi kejutan dengan memberikan satu set perangko Royal Wedding tersebut. Saya terkejut sekali waktu menerimanya, karena saya tidak pernah memberitahu dia bahwa saya ingin memiliki perangko tersebut. Ternyata, sejak beberapa waktu yang lalu, beliau telah memasukkan namanya di daftar tunggu, karena banyak sekali orang yang ingin memiliki perangko Royal Wedding ini. Well, ini adalah perangko-perangko tersebut. Thanks Bertie, saya sangat menghargai pemberian ini.   

Happy Mother Day

Every second Sunday of May, many parts of the world celebrate Mother's Day to honor their mothers. People send gifts, flowers and cards to show their love. David also bought flowers and brought them to his mom grave at the Enfield memorial cemetery. This year, for the first time, I visited her with him.

I never met my mother in law, Betty Maxwell Orr, who died in 1991 at 57 years old. However, I am often told of her kindness, love, sense of humor and how good David's relationship was with his mother.

My own mother has also passed away. She died in 1998 at the age of 55. Although she has been gone for over 10 years, I still have many sweet memories still fresh in my mind. I still feel her spirit around me and believe that she can see my happiness from heaven above.  

Your Mother Is Always With You... 

Your mother is always with you... 

She's the whisper of the leaves

as you walk down the street. 

She's the smell of bleach

in your freshly laundered socks. 

She's the cool hand on your brow

when you're not well. 

Your mother lives inside your laughter.

She's crystallized in every tear drop. 

She's the place you came from,

your first home...

She's the map you follow

with every step that you take. 

She's your first love

and your first heart break...

and nothing on earth can separate you. 

Not time, Not space...

Not even death...

will ever separate you

from your mother... 

You carry her inside of you... 

Author Unknown 

Easter Holiday

This year, Australians had a very long Easter weekend. This year, Easter Monday fell on the same day as ANZAC Day, so as a bonus, the Government also declared Tuesday, 26 April 2011 as a public holiday! So in total, we had 5 days off. ^_^


Since our honeymoon, David and I planned to visit David and Karyn in Casterton for the Easter holiday weekend. To avoid all the long weekend traffic, we started our trip on the Thursday. On the way, we stopped at Mt. Lofty to see the beautiful the Botanical Gardens and the summit. From there, we continued on to Murray Bridge where we had lunch and then onto David & Karen's place just in time for dinner. ^_^. 


This was the third time we've visited D&K's place. We enjoy the atmosphere where we can just relax and have a great time with our very good friends. 


On Good Friday we had lunch at the pub with D&K and their daughter's family, followed by both Davids playing lawn bowls at the local bowling club. Lawn bowls is a sport which usually played outdoors. Each player will roll a slightly asymmetric bowl in an attempt to get it closest to a smaller, normally white ball called the kitty, or Jack. This sport is well known in the Commonwealth countries as well as in Malaysia.      

A couple of times, we visited Cheryl and her partner, Matt's small farm where we caught some yabbies in the dam on their property. Yabbies look similar to prawns, but they live in fresh water and have claws. We threw back all the female ones which left us with 44 which we barbecued on skewers with capsicum, onion and pineapple.     

On Easter Saturday, David and I traveled to nearby Hamilton to do some shopping at our favourite store, ALDI (which, unfortunately we don't have in Adelaide). On the way, we stopped at the Glenelg Chocolate factory in Coleraine and bought some Easter gifts. That night, we went to Mt. Gambier,  located around 1 hour drive from Casterton for dinner. We decided to eat asian at the Malaysian House restaurant. For this occasion, everyone except me wore batik...I didn't bring mine for fear of being too cold. 

On ANZAC day, 25 April 2011, we gathered with about 200 of Casterton's residents at the War Memorial monument to remember all those who have died in battle since World War I. The ceremony was followed by a parade that included surviving veterans, the CFS (where Karen is a member), the marching band and others heading to the Town Hall to attend a commemorative ceremony. 

Unfortunately, Tuesday came around and we had to leave, but we will look forward to D&K visiting us here in Adelaide in August.